Could This Be Love (I'm Feeling Drifting Up)
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Jace's has had strong feelings for Clary for a long time now. Clace. Oneshot.


**Hey! Another oneshot. Haha. Hope you guys aren't too sick of these yet.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the title, which comes from _Could This Be Love_ by The Wanted.**

Jace Herondale had never felt the way he felt about for Clarissa Morgenstern with anyone else.

When he was seven, he liked her knee high socks and pigtails.

When he was ten, he liked her goalie jersey and her soccer boots.

When he was thirteen, he liked her pink lipgloss and bright orange sandals.

When he was sixteen, he liked her bright red, newly dyed hair and paint stained hands.

When he was nineteen, he liked her tight black dresses and dark eye make up.

When he was twenty-two, he liked her nose ring and complete and utter confidence.

Now he was twenty-five and he was beginning to think that he didn't just like her.

It was something more than that.

Yes.

 _Definitely_ more.

They had met when Jace and his parents had moved down the street from her. He was the same age as her brother, Jonathan Morgenstern, a year and a half older than Clary, and he got on well with her brother, but it was Clary that Jace had always got on better with. They had separate friend groups at school, but as they got older, they all began to merge together.

Jace had never met a family like Clary's.

They were loud and messy and adored each other.

Stephen Herondale was never around and when he was, he ignored Jace, and made it obvious that he never wanted kids.

Celine Herondale was an alcoholic who had married the first man who proposed and spent most of her time passed out on the couch.

Jace had the Lightwoods, his cousins and his uncle and aunt, and while that was a loving family, it wasn't as...Crazy loving as Clary's.

And then there was just Clary herself.

Jace kissed her when she was fifteen and he was sixteen.

It was at Lake Lyn, the place where a lot of high school students would hang out.

They were passing around drinks—Alexander Lightwood and Jonathan both had pretty good fake ID's.

They were playing Truth or Dare.

They were laughing and warm from the summer breeze.

Clary's lips were sticky and tasted like the raspberry syrupy drink she had in her hand.

It lasted all of five seconds before Clary pulled away, giggling, nudging his shoulder with her own before leaning heavily on Simon Lewis.

Jace had considered pursuing something further for all of two minutes before he saw Jonathan glaring at him.

Jace had certainly noticed Clary before the kiss, because it was hard not to. She was full of energy and she seemed perpetually happy and he really liked the way she always had paint somewhere on her; her hair, her clothes, her hands, her arms. She liked playing soccer and was pretty good at it as well, although she stopped playing in high school because she was taking art classes two days after school and worked at a vet two other days, so she didn't really have time.

But after the kiss, his... _Adoration_ of her grew.

Alec said he had a crush.

Isabelle sung out that he was in love.

Jace ignored both of them.

He dated Kaelie Whitewillow, and then Seelie Queen.

It wasn't serious with either of them, but it was fun, until Kaelie got jealous once he moved onto Seelie, and then it got a little crazy.

He went to the University of Chicago.

Clary went to the Brooklyn Academy of Art.

They lost touch for a while, although there were still things they tagged each other in on Facebook and he would text her a few times.

Then there were holidays, when they would both head back to Idris to see their families.

It wasn't the same though, not how it was when they were in high school.

Jace didn't like that.

And Clary was different.

A lot different.

But in a good way?

It was like going away to the big city and helped her get even _more_ comfortable in her skin.

Even though Jace hated the distance between them, he liked that she was having fun.

When Jace found out that Clary would be moving to San Francisco after she graduated, he was overjoyed. He was going to moving back to their hometown, which was only an hour away from the city. They might not be just down the road from each other like they were back when they were kids, but a one hour drive was a whole lot less than a two and a half hour flight.

Reconnecting brought his feelings for her back full force.

Alec and Isabelle were right there, saying the same things they were in high school.

Except Jace was _too old_ to have a crush.

And he _really_ wasn't ready to admit that he was in love.

Clary dated a man named Sebastian Verlac who seemed to treat her well, even though he was a bit of a tool, although it didn't last long.

Jace dated a woman who worked in the same building as him, Camille Belcourt.

She was a few years older than him, very career orientated, and she seemed to sniff out his interest in Clary were early on, and she broke things off in a cordial email.

They were seeing each other almost every weekend, at least every second week.

Drinks on Friday nights, soccer on Saturday afternoons and brunch on Sundays morning.

Usually Simon, Alec, Isabelle, Magnus Bane and Aline Penhallow were with them.

Sometimes they weren't.

Sometimes it was like double date with Alec and Magnus, or Aline and her latest girlfriend.

A couple of times it was just the pair of them.

Jace drove up to San Francisco every once and while and stayed in her apartment—always sleeping on her pull out couch.

They would go to the beach and street markets and she would take him to the best, hole in the wall food places.

Clary would skip around, tossing her hair, green eyes dancing, sun catching the diamond in her nose, skirt flipping up around her thighs, bangles jangling on her wrists.

She was beautiful.

Okay.

Yeah.

Maybe he was in love.

Maybe he had been in love for a while.

He wasn't sure.

He wasn't quite prepared to think about that just yet.

One thing at a time.

And then they all went back to Lake Lyn.

"I have not been here in _years_!" Isabelle was a little bit drunk.

Simon didn't seem to mind at all.

Neither did Maia Roberts, who had come with the couple.

Had actually been hanging around with the couple a lot lately, but Jace was focusing on someone completely different.

"Try not to fall in the lake," Alec drawled, raising an eyebrow as his sister headed right for the lake, rather than stopping by where Jonathan and his girlfriend, Lydia Branwell, were sitting.

Magnus rolled his eyes at his always-worried partner and pulled him down onto the smooth, water worn rocks.

Maia went into the water with Isabelle, although they were careful not to go much further than ankle deep.

At least until Clary ran in with them, kicking up the water and splashing the other girls, the three of them giggling and squealing.

The boys made a bonfire and they circled around it, and they were lucky that there weren't any other students around.

It was autumn, which meant there was a slight chill in the air, and Simon and Magnus got blankets out of the car.

Jace wasn't _drunk_.

And neither was Clary.

But they were both definitely tipsy.

Jace couldn't help but snort when Maia and Isabelle started making out and Simon watched them with interest.

It wouldn't be long before _they_ all left.

There was music playing from the little speaker that Magnus had hooked up to his phone.

Clary sidled up to Jace at some point, flipping her blanket over his shoulders.

They shared warmth for a while, watching the flames dance, listening to their friends and laughing with them.

It was some time just before midnight when Clary put down her empty bottle of beer that she leaned in close to him.

"It would be poetic if you kissed me here now, where you kissed me the first time," she murmured.

Jace's whole body jerked at her words.

"Oh, come on," Clary rolled her eyes at him, looking playful. "I've let you fumble your way through this long enough."

What was that even supposed to mean?

"And let me tell you, you've been doing a shitty job," she added with a grin.

He still wasn't sure what was going on.

Clary rolled her eyes again and huffed out a laugh before leaning in.

This time, her lips weren't sticky, and instead of tasting like some red drink, she tasted like beer.

She also kissed him for a lot longer, tilting her head to the side and resting her hand on his knee.

It was perfect.

And it felt like he had the potential to fly.

Yes.

He was gonna go with the fact this was love.

 **Let me know what you think x**


End file.
